Almost 50 percent of American households now have a computer, according to the 1999 Consumer Reports Buying Guide. Lightning-quick evolution of technology, combined with ever-increasing competitive price wars, are creating an industry so large it has an entire era named after it. But there is one thing we in this computer age love more than technology: simplicity.

DVDs have a long way to go before reaching simplicity. There are several formats which are not all interchangeable. In fact, there are at least six different formats for DVD players. The two currently most common are DVD Video and DVD-ROM (Read Only Memory). DVD Video players are what you'd buy to hook up to the TV. DVD-ROM plugs into the computer. A third format is DIVX, which is a form of DVD Video. A DVD Video player should specify if it can play DIVX format.

The rest, all for the computer, are different formats of rewritable DVD: DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-R/W and MMVF (as listed in the 1999 Consumer Reports Computer Buying Guide). Rewritable DVDs are just coming into the market, and it may be several months before they've established a standard format. If you can't help yourself and have to buy the newest toy, get DVD-RAM for now, as it was the first to hit the market and currently the most accessible. Only DVD Videos and CDs can be read by all DVD players. DVD Video players cannot read any of the computer formats.

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